thorns it had to work through but probably would. so on balance a very interesting hour, folks. that will do it for "power lunch." thanks, everybody, for watching. >> this have a great afternoon. we will see you tomorrow. street signs begins right now. welcome to "street signs." where stocks are trying -- trying -- to bust out of their losing streak. another jobs number helping us earlier but maybe not so fast. we'll tell you why mom and pop are still scared of this market and maybe that's a good thing because we are going to show you some scary warnings that we had gotten this week. plus, how joe biden may have helped the credit card industry's recent boom. and the value of being a number off. this is a story featuring florida, its governor, good intentions and porn. you won't want to miss that. but the big headline today, our exclusive interview with lloyd blankfein and the author

of simpson-bowles. listen to this. >> the american people are way ahead of congress. >> way ahead of politicians. they know we've got a problem and they want those politicians to stand up and get the job done. for generations we've asked our politicians to bring home the bacon. well, the pig is dead. >> in the meantime, some very strong words from the goldman ceo, brian. but here is the trillion dollar question. the dow is up about 10% so far this year. is the fix to the fiscal cliff already priced in or would a real solution add even more to this big run. l steve, what say you -- is it already priced in? >> i don't think so because i don't think we know exactly what the solution is yet. i think there's going to be something coming but how much is going to come from the tax side, how much is going to come from the spending side. is it going to affect investments, what happens to taxation of dividends, capital

gains, et cetera. so it is difficult to see how it is priced in yet because we really don't have any details. >> we don't have the details just yet but neil, wouldn't you say that the market is feeling right now that surely, congress, surely lawmakers wouldn't that be stupid to push us over the edge. surely no matter what the details are something will get done and to a certain degree it is already priced in. >> if i heard you correct, they're not that stupid. >> well maybe they are that stupid. >> that's an okxymoron term her. basically it is going to get kicked down the road because they won't make a decision. we've been asking for clarity for a long, long time on health care, taxes, regulations. essentially what we're going to have is beginning of november we'll have clarity on who's going to be president. and if it is governor romney, then i think business will step up to the plate and start to spend some of their cash or $2 trillion in cash. if it is president obama, i think what will happen, people will continue -- business will

continue to hold back just their cash for a couple years because we'll have clarity on that issue. i don't care what side you're on because he won't get a third term. it doesn't matter. nobody gets a third term. >> steve, let's talk about lloyd blankfein. the guy running one of the biggest and arguably the most powerful investment bank in capital markets firms in the world and here's what he had to say about the market and the fiscal cliff. >> i'd be a buyer of the market at goldman sachs would -- we not only buy these for companies, we buy these ourselves. we would be assuming that our business would grow, that companies would be making more acquisitions, making more investments, that we would be doing more financings and we would have to get the people on-board to make sure that we were able to provide those advice on those services. >> is he wrong, steve? >> oh, i'm shocked! shocked that the ceo of a major investment bank is bullish. oh, my god! breaking news! i mean i think he's partially right. i think there are segments of

the market that are definitely a buy right now and i think those segments of the market are very inexpensive. if you look at a lot of dividend paying companies, they continue to be underpriced relative to fixed income. there's a lot of stocks out there yielding 5%, 6%, 7%, 8%, even as high as 11% and 12% that are great values here. if you look at all the social media companies trading at hung multiples of revenue, they're not a bargain and they shouldn't be bought. >> i note, steve, your sarcasm. it is well noted. blankfein was saying if we have a deal. but you bring up a good point -- the market is a big thing. so you mention values. where are you finding values in the market? >> right now we see great value in bdcs, business development companies that are yielding anywhere from 9% to 11%. we're starting to see value in shipping. if there's a resurgence of the chinese economy prompted by the chinese government, i think dry bulk shipping will come back.

those stocks have been beating down to dirt-cheap levels. just recently a lot of reits, especially the mortgage agency reits have been trading below book value on concerns that dividends will be lower. i think if you pick up some of those below 95% of book value, those are cheap as well. >> if you can get them at that price. it is always about the price. neil, blankfein is a buyer of this market. should moms and dads, retail investors, be buyers of this market? i know that we've had a few down days. i know that we're off the multi-year highs but we're not far off. do you think that at these levels mom and dad should be in participateing? >> absolutely. where the money's going over a trillion dollars has going into fixed income products or bond funds in the last year-and-a-half, $3.5 billion has come out of mutual funds, equity funds. you're getting no return in the fixed income market. that's going to be really tragic is if rates do ratchet up, the individual investor is going to lose money in the bond market which will give them a sour

taste and a feeling that wall street's really against us. the reality of the situation is what lloyd did say is they're going to be more acquisitions because in a slow economy, amanda, you can't grow your revenue quick enough to keep up with what the analysts are expecting you to do. so one of the ways you can do it is by making an acquisition. when you're sitting on that much cash, you have to deploy it somehow, some way. it is either going to be initiated dividend, raising a dividend, buying back your stock, making acquisitions. all these things are great for the stock market. it's not great for the unemployment numbers, but it is very good for the stock market. >> it is. it is. but narrow it down. where should mom and dad invest today? >> i still think on the low end retail, you can still get pretty good bargains in there because the shopper is not going to switch their buying habits. can you do a family dollar, dollar tree, because people want to stretch their dollar. what we have is a two-fold economy right now. you have one that is an emotional recovery, or if you're

out of work, an emotional recession. so everybody's trying to stretch their dollar as far as possible and that's why the low-end retailers will continue to do well. >> guys, just quickly i want to step away from the fiscal cliff. okay? let's move away. this week i got a little nervous. here's why. i want to show our viewers some things that maybe have gone underneath their radar with regards to earnings. and i know it is early in the season for earnings. guidance is what we care about. look at what we've seen so far this week. owens-corning saying that its roofing business is slowing down. right? they're blaming europe. engine maker cummins cutting guidance, blaming lots of stuff, including china. you got truckmaker paccar citing europe. quest diagnostics announcing 400 to 600 layoffs. i know it is early, steve. comment on what we have heard. that type of stuff, the big industrial stuff, makes me nervous. >> so for the 11th quarterly earnings season in a row, a lot

of people are projecting that companies are going to miss their numbers. early in the quarterly earnings season is when you tend to see the bad news. right now, right before the numbers come out, those that aren't going to make their numbers preannouncing, and the bad news tends to come before the good news. i think it will slow down. think the numbers will not be as good as previous quarters but i don't think it will be a disaster, because corporate america has gotten very good at getting wall street to put numbers out there that they can easily jump over. so i don't think they'll easily clear the bar but i think a lot of companies have put essentially numbers out there. they know they can beat and they just won't beat them by as much as they used to. bottom line, it is not going to be as good as past quarters but i don't think it is going to be a disaster. >> because expectations have been ratcheted down so much, perhaps after a few of these big warnings from the industrials, earnings have been ratcheted down even further. neil, do you feel if we do get any positive surprises we're going to see some outsized gains? >> i just think you have to put

it in perspective. remember, we're in a 1% economy. we're growing very slowly so everybody's looking at the expectations of the go-go days where earnings were going to grow at 10%, 15%, revenues were going to grow on the up side, 10%, to 15%. that's not the economy we're in. we're in a slow economy. so if the companies just continue to make the same amount of money, or even a little bit less compared to last year, everything's going to be fine because you're still looking at the pe ratios that are below historical levels. you are looking at cash flow ratios well below historical levels. you could see the market if we just get back to those two type of marks, you're going to see the market move somewhere between 2,000 and 4,000 on the up side. but that's going to take confidence on the investor side and confidence on the businessman and corporation side. >> guys, smart interview with just the appropriate dash of snark. we appreciate that. >> snark and irony. let's get a market flash

now. >> good afternoon. take a look at this chart. shares of metro pcs are now spiking. this is on a nikkei report saying that softbank is going to acquire it. look at that spike, up 1.6%. this is adding on to the story as we were following it this morning. sprint had a spike on its news. nikkei saying softbank to acquire pcs. up next, more on our huge exclusive. listen to what erskine bowles had to say about the anger politicians are about to see up close. >> people are never going to understand how critical this particular time in history is. we have 7.7 trillion -- trillion -- dollars worth of economic events that are going to hit america in the gut in december. and in washington, they're doing nothing about it! nothing about it! we should be asking these guys running for president and every guy running for congress -- what are you going to do? >> it is a really good question. right? what are they going to do?

we will find out -- next.

let's continue the discussion now around our exclusive interview with lloyd blankfein, erskine bowles and alan simpson. even though there is a lot of concern about the fiscal situation, the goldman ceo seems very pro-america. >> the united states i think actually has some of the greatest blessings around, except that -- look. all the other problems in the world are real structural

issues. china. the structure of the euro. in the united states, a lot of our problems are self-inflicted and can be self-resolved. >> joining us now, the man who did the interview himself, steve leisman. also kate kelly joins us here on set. dan greenhouse, chief global strategist at btig and a cnbc contributor. steve, fantastic interview. but, is blankfein right about our problems being able to be resolved or solved by ourselves? >> you know, i think he is, mandy. thank you very much, by the way. what i find interesting about what blankfein is saying, think about it from a business perspective. think about what goldman has done successfully which is take the advantage you have and press them. we have a series of advantages. they're demographic. we are an incredibly wealthy country which is something that says, these allusions they make to zimbabwe about the united states, they're just off base because the wealth factors are so much greater. don't snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.

and i think that's what blankfein is saying. a lot of of the problems we have are problems that we can solve. they're not intractable. they're not structural. why should we be experiencing these problems when they're problems that we can fix? >> kate kelly, will you agree with what steve's saying here or were there other particular takeaways that struck you from blankfein? >> sure, steve makes a good point. blankfe blankfein, if anything, was ot mystic and had some interesting words of support for the fed. he basically called them very aggressive with the tool book they have, whether we're now on to q3 or anything else they can think of, and at the same time courageous. but he said there's nothing the fed can do to reverse the damage if members of congress abdicate their fiscal responsibility, a theme certainly shared by simpson and bowles. any time you get lloyd blankfein exclusively like you did, it is interesting to see. some themes he hit on -- he's bullish on china in the long

term. he think they'll have a bad year but they won't have a bad century. he thinks europe is facing headwinds but they'll muddle through. s i ss issues self-inflicted and can be self-resolved. equities regarded as a high-yield asset class which he implies he thinks is ridiculous. >> kate, i wasn't sure about that in the following sense -- was that a bullish comment on equities or is that a comment that says equities are overvalued and people are in them at least for the wrong reason? and even if it is not overvalued, you could foresee a rotation out of equities for some people when interest rates normalize? >> guys, i want to get dan greenhouse into the conversation. danny being's a very patient guy. now he is a dad, he has to be patient. blankfein, dan, very, very bullish on the united states inasmuch as as we just said. maybe not quite as much on europe. listen to what lloyd blankfein had to say about our friends across the atlantic. >> europe looks much better than it did six months ago but they have a lot of wood to chop.

but i will tell you, the big shock of a derailment of the euro i think the official sector did a good job of if not entirely taking it offer the table, really relieving some short-term concerns as they muddled through. >> dan, would the chop, maybe putting it nicely, some people would call 20 gind redwooant re looming over their fiscal heads. >> i don't think he said anything that's surprising. europe has gone the way sort of taking issues off the private sector balance sheet and put on the public sector balance sheet. i want to go full libertarian right now, full rick santelli and just sort of -- i don't understand why people are embracing this plan. if you're a republican, you're losing farm subsidies, you're losing enormous amount of defense cuts. i can't believe that republicans like what's in here. and clearly from a left wing standpoint, you're fixing the social security problem primarily through spending cuts

rather than tax increases. >> but dan, here's the thing. is a point lloyd blankfein made and it was certainly echoed by simpson and bowles. this country is very divide. anybody who's truly going to lead is going to have to pull everybody somewhere near the center if they're going to get anything accomplished. >> but my point is. >> the nature of this whole thing as a compromise, neither side is going to love it. what's amazing is because of the political divisiveness in this country, simpson was saying he thinks it is going to be hard to get something done. so is bowles. bowles put it at 30% we are able to ward off the fiscal cliff? >> if i can pile on dan. if he's playing santelli, it is my again fix rogenetic role to . isn't it right that the side that pisses both sides equally is the right plan? >> but this is nothing! we're going to spend $47 trillion in the next ten years and this cuts $4 trillion. it is a drop in the bucket. the fact that these guys in washington can't even rally around a program that does almost nothing really speaks to

the intractable problems we have in the united states. >> maybe it is even lower than the 30%, the 30% chance of guesting a fiscal cliff deal done, dan. >> i don't understand -- we have real fundamental problems that are somewhat easily solvable and this doesn't -- i hear people talking about how simpson-bowles slashes the size of government. it absolutely does not. >> dan, confidence is ephemeral and optics is everything. just the idea they can get something done, even if i agree with you 100% it won't matter that much, it makes people feel good. when they feel good, they buy homes, cars, fridges, they spend. >> to mandy's question about the 30% probability, the market according to bowles has priced in a very strong likelihood that we head off the fiscal cliff, that we're able to come up with a new solution. not just a temporary one. >> they can't be that stupid to do it. >> stupid was a word used by everybody. if that's the case, the market has priced this in and yet the real dealmakers think it is less than likely, that's sort of an

investable thing. >> i can't understand how they can say they're not that stupid. have they seen who we elect to congress? they are that stupid. >> i want to add to brian's excellent list about confidence and other things, that math is also inexorable. dan, if you bring down the deficit to a place where it is sustainable, we're talking about confidence here. we're talking about the ability, a, to fund the deficit and, b, to continue to attract capital. if you bring it down to place where the growth of the deficit is less than gdp, then have you a sustainable deficit. >> listen, i agree with that. frankly, simpson-bowles is better than anything else we've got so we might as well take it. there's things to like in here. flattening tax rates and getting rid of deductions? i don't think people realize this but simpson-bowles gets rid of the mortgage interest deduction, it gets rid of major tax expenditures that "cost the u.s." revenue each year. dpou that the economy can operate more efficiently. my comment is it's just not very

big given the amount of debate that it engenders. >> brian had a wonderful list of all the things people might do, might open up their wallets once they feel they've got cough dense in their leaders. we have a lot of uncertainty right now. we don't know who is going to be in the white house in november. we don't know what's going to happen with the fiscal cliff. once these things are said and done, how much of an economic boost would you expect? how much confidence would it instill? >> it is a good question. i take my hat off to blankfein especially on that one point. he was talking about the opportunity cost of not doing a deal. how much up side there would be in the market, in the economy, if we did have a deal, even to speak to dan's point, if it is not the perfect deal as some people say, don't make the perfect the enemy of the good here. >> it is "a" deal. >> there is some up side that to me should cause both sides to compromise in their principle in the sense that if you think, for example, that raising taxes would destroy the economy, well, not having a deal is also

destroying the economy so it should cause you to back off and come to a compromise. also on the entitlement issue, that would really hurt. but you know what? less growth hurts the poor even more than the entitlement issue. >> we got to go, dan. but i want to leave it with this very quickly. i can't not get this in there. some people have made the case why we need to go over the fiscal cliff, that viewing it as an automatic negative is the wrong way. make the case for going over the fiscal cliff. raise taxes on everybody, short-term pain for long-term gain. >> remember, i'll make two quick points. first of which is if you're the cbo, the chart looks like a "v." you go down off the cliff, you take some pain over the first six months, then you return to trend, and then some over the ensuing three to five years. so there's something to be said for that. the other point i'll make, remember, if you're barack obama and you win re-election, you get to -- you go over the cliff and then you get to spend the first six months of next year campaigning on the obama tax cut pledge. so there's something to be said for congressional democrats and the president allowing this to

happen so that you don't extend tax cuts, you get to implement new tax cuts. >> fantastic conversation. >> really was. dan, steve, kate, thank you. >> and relatively civilized considering the topics we have at hand. >> and considering dan was rick santelli. >> steve will play santelli next. mandy will play steve and i'll placate kelly. >> that will be interesting. are you going to wear my high heels? >> i'm not smart enough. >> he's got his own. he's got his own. >> smallist violin in the world. if facebook showered you on the ipo market, you might want to kick yourself right now. we're about to go back to the nyse with some news on a very impressive new offering. and don't cry for me, california. sure, they have a great love for the environment, but isn't that the reason why their gas prices are so darn high right now? we'll going to challenge an environmentalist from sacramento

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nkn downgrading ryland to a sell. down the most, 3.85%. down across the board. a big day for initial public offerings. four priced today all opened up big led by realogy holdings. that's the company behind century 21 and coldwell banker. bob pisani is at the new york stock exchange where they're feeling a little better today. >> holy-moly. a home run for ipos. priced at $27, opened at $32, still on the up side. there is a play on real estate. but more importantly, everybody owns all the plays on real estate. they own home depot and home builders. here's the hot company on the . b biotech. kythera. they make injections that go under your chin to get rid of the fat.

>> two for one, bob. could i definitely do with that. >> talking about the next one, another biotech firm. these firms don't open up big like this. intercept. they deal with problems with the liver. liver disease. very important, big growth area, priced at $15. opened at $19.40. still holding up here. finally, here's one i bet you are wondering why is it doing so well. a commercial stock -- shutterstock. why are they doing so well? you're a company. you want a brochure. you don't want to spend a fortune for photography. you want to go online, buy some noise photographs for a few dollars, drop them into your brochure, boom, you own it forever. that's the idea behind it. mandy, 60% margins. >> 60%! bob, stick around. stick around. want to bring herb into the conversation. herb has been a pretty lousy year for ipos. what do you make of this? >> kind of interesting, makes me wonder what happened to that recent string of ipos where people said there were canceling for market conditions. we were talking about that

company blythe which pulled a deal. dave and buster, they pulled a deal. what you want to know when they blame market conditions is -- what's the real reason? >> well, herb, that's a good point. first off, market conditions were a little tough sometimes for some of these firms. remember, facebook was a disaster for the ipo business so a lot of stuff kind of got pushed off here. but what they're looking for right now is anything that's got any kind of growth at all they'll pay up for in the low growth environment. at least with the real estate firm and a guy like shutterstock here, you got a little growth. >> indeed. meantime, herb, this is the story that you've been following. apollo. is this just good pr? >> i think at a level -- it is. it is kind of interesting because they are not the first ones to do this. they came out today, they said they're going to freeze their tuitions for the term of enrollment for students but they're not the first one. a few others have come out and either had scholarships or discounts. the real issue here is what's

going to happen going forward because costs are continuing to rise. competition's continuing to rise. these guys have got to hold the line now. this is the -- the culmination of so much that's been going on in this for-profit market. you're going to see margins, pay attention to margins with these companies because that could ultimately be the big tell here. >> there is a fine print to this tuition freeze, though. nothing is free. i'm going through it right now. there's six or seven different conditions you have to meet. one of them is you have to maintain consistent enrollment from beginning to end. you can't go a couple years and drop out. they give you about five years to do an associate's degree, eight years to do a bachelor's degree so they kind of lock you in with this. or else you almost face a financial penalty. >> they attempt to lock you in. they're concerned about defaults. most of the students are coming from federal loans. they're trying to hold them in there and, you know -- >> there's always fine print. there's no such thing as a free lunch. >> i think this morning on

"squawk box," they said every dumb-dumb can go to college today because there's somebody willing to give them a loan and a college willing to accept them? it was on "squawk box" this morning. right? >> it was somewhere but i saw the line and it was excellent. >> dumb-dumb. that's a delicious lollipop as well. >> someone with intellectual challenge. the vice presidential debate is set live for tonight on cnbc. here's an advance tip for you dpop not be surprised if joe biden and paul ryan end up fighting about credit card companies. why would they do that? you're going to have to stick around and watch the show to find out. a little later on, yesterday we told but those 20-something slacker guys dragging the economy down? you're about to meet one woman who says all men are the problem. all men are the problem. i hope you're going to stick around for that one as well. "street signs" is back in two. trade in hong kong. tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 after that, it's on to germany. tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 then tonight, i'm trading 9500 miles away in japan.

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it is street talk time. let's take a look at what's happening with metro pcs, sprint, softbank, a big sort of three-way incest ul kind of story. >> it is evolving by the minute. all right. so, let's talk about what we knew a while ago. and by "a while ago," i mean

like ten minutes. >> okay. >> the japanese giant softbank, a company you are very familiar with, second-richest guy in japan, reports out that he was interested in buying either all of sprint or most of sprint. wants to expand in the u.s. market. so bring up sprint first, please. solid "s." because you're going to see the big run-up in sprint which is a solid "s." when we look at sprint, apparently somebody's drawing it by hand in the back. there we go. sprint closed here, spiked open on the reports. it's coming down a bit because there are other reports out there that now perhaps metro pcs could be in the market for sprint, or that softbank could be in the market for metro pcs. our own david faber has been tweeting out. we're trying to reach him. he's probably in the gym, he's kind of a buff guy. but he has been tweeting out that his sources say softbank is

not talking to metro pcs. not sure where those reports are coming from. so softbank may go after sprint or metro pcs. faber's sources say no to that. lot going on in this space. >> okay. lots going on with that one. cooper tire and rubber is also soaring today on potential buyout news from an indian tire maker. >> we called street talk the international edition. cooper tire, maybe. india's newspaper "the economic times" reporting apollo tires, an indian company, is in the process of buying a controlling stake in cooper tire and rubber. could be a $600 million to $800 million deal. would be interesting though. listen -- cooper tire has a history that dates back to 1913. has been listed on the nyse since 1960. maybe a little alagorical.

>> couple of interesting stories for you guys to watch. meantime, tonight, joe biden and paul ryan are going to duke it out in the vice presidential debate. cnbc. you can bet your bottom dollar is going to provide special coverage 7:00 p.m. eastern time. republicans may be readying a secret weapon. boston herl repoald reporting r might press biden on being soft on credit card companies while being in the senate. mastercard is up 192% in the last five years. visa up 146%. is that abiden credit card boom? and would it end, therefore, if romney and ryan win the white house? very good questions. let's bring in a guy that can hope pli provide sofully provid josh brown. you made a big call on credit card companies a few months ago on "street signs." you still own visa and you still think it is a good buy. why? >> yeah.

visa and mastercard both have something that is really hard to come by these days, which is a secular growth story that really doesn't get interrupted regardless of what happens with the economy. look around. people are paying for things with credit cards and debit card more and more and that's not going to go the other way regardless of consumer spending ebbing and flowing with the cyclical economies. >> regardless of who is in the white house? back to our original story? >> correct. look, biden is from delaware. that's a very popular state for credit card business. biden's son works at mbna. biden fought the bankruptcy rules where people were going to get off the hook. he took the/carr compani credit companies' side. nobody should be surprised. but i don't think the outcome of the vice presidential debate derails what's happening with these stocks. they're under major accumulation. even warren buffett's new guys that are picking stocks for him, they like these names. they're buying both. i prefer visa over mastercard

for the very simple reason that visa europe is a spunoff separate entity so you don't get that european exposure with kv. with mastercard you do. i think visa has acted better as a result. that's my pick. i think the stock's near $150 near year end. companies having some fun using the campaign to market their products. our jane wells joins us live from los angeles. jane, you've been reporting about these contests and polls all day. what have you got for us? >> first of all, doesn't this look like brian? >> oh! see, now? >> no, it's got too much hair. >> who do you think you are? mika brzezinski? >> zing! >> my ears are much bigger than that, by the way. >> well, no, these pretty big. but most of these polls -- >> president obama has a bigger head. >> i deserved that. i tease you guys about being

related to hobbits. >> back to you, jane. >> okay. in most of these polls, barack obama is leading mitt romney like in sales of halloween masks. these marketing stunts cost almost nothing and they're now almost mandatory. >> in the social media world you kind of look a little odd if you're not getting in to the conversation. if the debate's going on and you're not talking about it or not talking about what's happening coming up this november, then maybe you look a little like you're not with it. >> reporter: jetblue's first-ever election tie-in offers 1,000 free flights out of country for people threatening to leave if their guy loses. >> i would go to mexico. >> barbados, jamaica. >> i would leave the country. >> if things don't go your way, don't worry -- here's your chance to get out of the country with a free flight. >> from our perspective, we're outspent four or five to one by

some of our bigger competitors. it is important to do marketing programs and we want to do programs that actually -- every dollar we spend is worth $4 or $5. this program based on all the stats we've seen so far absolutely hits that mark. >> reporter: president obama is winning the jetblue poll but that's not necessarily good because you want your guy to lose to win the free flight. perhaps a better predictor, the 7-eleven poll. buy a cup of coffee with your guy's name on it. it has been right the last three elections. >> we try to keep it as lighthearted as possible. we don't take a stance. what you're seeing today is probably at least 50% of the people actually do make a selection to one of the two candidates. we think this year probably 6 million people will cast a vote in either the red or the blue cup. >> reporter: president obama is leading the 7-eleven cup poll but out in the hamptons at the monogram shop, romney's in the lead and that store says it has also been right the last three elections. oh, it's so close, guys!

back to you. >> that's shocking about the hamptons. where's the gary johnson yellow cup at 7-eleven? >> they have a green cup there if you don't want to do red or blue. that's if you want to be independent or agnostic and you don't care. >> or you're australian and can't vote anywhere. thank you so much, jane. so whether it comes to gas prices, it seems california doesn't understand the simple law of supply and demand. no new refineries in decades. no new pipelines into offshore drilling all because of california's tough environmental policies. so are the environmentalists to blame for higher gas prices or not? we're going to ask one coming up. a lower unemployment rate among workers 55 and older slows that boomers have fared better than others during these rough economic times. that has fueled speculation that delayed retirement keeps jobs away from young workers who face higher unemployment.

is it true? a new study's findings may surprise you. that's next when we return. i've been a superintendent for 30 some years at many different park service units across the united states. the only time i've ever had a break is when i was on maternity leave. i have retired from doing this one thing that i loved. now, i'm going to be able to have the time to explore something different. it's like another chapter. c'mon, michael! get in the game! [ male announcer ] don't have the hops for hoops with your buddies? lost your appetite for romance? and your mood is on its way down. you might not just be getting older. you might have a treatable condition called low testosterone or low t. millions of men, forty-five or older, may have low t.

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do boomers who delay retirement cause higher unemployment numbers for the young? not at all. according to the center for retirement research at boston college, accord together study as boomers work later, their consumption habits increase, which means more jobs and higher wages for younger workers. for more on retirement, go to retirement.cnbc.com. coming up on "closing bell" at the top of the hour, banking on earnings. is the market's faith hanging on the numbers coming out of the financial sector starting tomorrow? we'll look ahead to that. plus, we've seen a large number of ipos withdrawn over the past few months. is uncertainty about the economy giving companies cold feet? we will look at that as well. and you know coke's famous polar bears. a new parody says drinking all that sugar gives you diabetes and malady you don't discuss in polite company. the consumer advocate group that

commissioned that ad explains exclusively why this is no laughing matter. we look forwards to seeing you at the top of the hour. >> thank you very much, bill. pump prices are stabilizing across the nation, but of course they're by no means cheap. aaa says the national average for a gallon of regular fuel, ever so slightly fell overnight. now it is sitting at $3.81 a gallon. that's up 3 cents from a week ago, but still down 3 cents from a year ago. that's all well and good, unless you live in california. residents there are still paying an average of $4.66 a gallon. that's the highest in the nation. it got us thinking is california's energy crisis simply a pipeline problem, and could gas prices dramatically fall if indeed there was more drilling in the joining us now, california director of government affairs at the environmental working group, his group says drilling isn't the fix, so what is, bill?

>> well, a lot of things are. first, drilling won't get you out of an addiction to oil. you could drill more oil, but, hey, we're at the whims of the oil companies. we've been whipsawed by the oil companies forever. now i know there's been a refinery fire, but saying let's drill more in the arctic and get more oil out of california is difficult to extract oil isn't necessarily the answer. >> we obviously all would like to be energy independent and not have to be reliant on what's happening in the middle east and elsewhere, but what should we do tomorrow? there are people in california who are really, really hurting. they go to the pump, they're paying a lot of money, they're therefore not spending that money elsewhere in the economy. what do we do today? >> well, i drive a car, i fill it with gas so i can't say it doesn't hurt, but before i answer that question, i have to go back to 1973 when i was a senior in college and the first

arab oil embargo, then one in '78, '79, why didn't we do something about it then? here we are now 40 years later saying what should we do about it? well, we had many chances. i think the administration's current rise in the cafe standards, fuel efficiency standards, is very important. all cars should be getting 50 to 100 miles a gallon. there's notion cues for tha exc. before we say what do we do tomorrow, we have to urgently have fuel efficient vehicles on the road. >> but that's not going to happen today or tomorrow. >> listen, here, i'll trump your 1973 and go back four more years, 1969. that year was remarkable because it was the last year that a new refinery has been built in california. how is that conceivable? >> i'm not an expert on refinery construction, nor am i on car construction, but my 1986 honda accord got better gas mileage by far than the honda accord of today. now cars are cleaner today

because our air resources board requires it in california. we have 1 out of 8 americans live in california. if we didn't have really good rules we'd have very dirty air and it is still dirty and we're trying to clean it up so we hav trying to clean it up. so we have more restrictions on our refineries in california, so the industry is probably not as active. you know what? they're going to get us gas because that's where they sell all their products. i'm not worried about them leaving the state. i think there are difficulties in more refineries in california. there a >> all right. we'll have to leave it there. thank you for joining us today. >> you're welcome. and have you ever wondered what happened to all the men at the office? we're about to talk to a woman who says men only have themselves to blame for disappearing in the work force. she says the all-girls club is not at all good for the economy. interesting thoughts coming your way next.

folks who save hundreds of dollars switching to geico sure are happy. i'd say happier than a slinky on an escalator. get happy. get geico. melons!!! oh yeah!! well that was uncalled for. folks who save hundreds of dollars switching to geico sure are happy. how happy, ronny? happier than gallagher at a farmers' market. get happy. get geico.

well, today's sunshine is not a stock. it is a whole lot of bonds. a massachusetts junk haul found an envelope filled with u.s. savings bonds stashed in a piece

of furniture he was throwing out. more than $22,000 in 1972 bonds. the current value, $114,000. the good news is he returned them to the daughter of the woman who once owned the chest. >> that is -- >> it restores your faith in humanity. put it that way. >> no, it doesn't. all right, today's theme is numbers matter. florida governor rick scott has learned this the hard way. during a press conference on the meningitis outbreak, he meant to give out the number for a health hotline. instead, he was a couple digits off, maybe even one digit. we're not sure. the number he gave out was for a phone sex hotline. he figured it out, corrected the problem. they got some business. >> why would he want to correct the problem? >> there you go. yesterday, we talked about how 20-something dudes are a big drag on the economy because they're not working. our next guest says it is not just the young men, it is all men that are the problem. hmmmm. joining us from boston is the

senior editor at "the atlantic." also the author of the book "the end of men." how am i to take this? am i done? >> yes, you should get up right now and leave your seat. >> i'm out. >> let us take over. no, i'm just kidding. >> no, but why is it the end of men? listen, i got to be honest with you, i'm not completely disagreeing with you. >> yeah, i mean, i don't think we should say it's their fault. you have to feel bad for them. men have the lowest labor force participation rate since 1948. they're just not able to get jobs. the economy's changed. it's harder to be a guy who doesn't want to go to college, for example, and be middle class or live a prosperous life. you feel bad for the guys. >> what do you mean the economy has changed? how has it changed to be against men? >> well, you know, the very beginni inning of the stories wd to have on manufacturing-based economy we don't have anymore. we have a service-based economy. it seems to be favoring the

natural skills of women, or at least women seem to be adapting quicker. it's not that men can't do it. it's that women are getting the degrees and kcredentials they need at much faster rates. >> i have no idea what it's like from the women's side, but from a man's perspective, it's confusing. sometimes it is very confusing. >> what do you mean by that? what's confusing? >> the sort of expectation of what they're supposed to be. and to be fair, a lot of guys have a hard time with that. i've got two friends of mine e wives are far more successful and educated than they are. listen, they struggle with it sometimes. >> yeah, i mean, in the book i interview lots of such couples where either the wife makes a lot more money or the husband is struggling and this is very new in their lives. how the guys act depends completely where they're from. one of my chapters is reporting in alabama where it's really hard. it's just confusing what you're supposed to be and if it's okay or not. i would say it is okay. maybe that's the next phase, the

beginning of a new kind of man. >> a new kind of man. okay. we're going to see. we're going to watch. you're going to be a new kind of man apparently, brian. there you go. so which country has the wealthiest citizens? the u.s.? japan? switzerland? you're going to hear the surprising answer and why when we return. smart comes with 8 airbags,]3 a crash management system and the world's only tridion safety cell which can withstand over three and a half tons. small in size. big on safety. which can withstand over three and a half tons. if we want to improve our schools... ...what should we invest in? maybe new buildings? what about updated equipment? they can help, but recent research shows... ...nothing transforms schools like investing in advanced teacher education. let's build a strong foundation.

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